Cooper was driving north in a 2003 black BMW X5. Dispatchers repeatedly asked him to put the car in neutral and try manually decelerating while on cruise control, but Cooper said neither worked.

"Get out the way!" he yelled frantically as he tried to avoid hitting cars on the highway, with his flashers and a green strobe light on in the front windshield.

A trooper got behind the SUV near mile marker 112 in St. Lucie County. The trooper moved in front of the vehicle to move other cars out of the way near mile marker 116, between Becker Road and Tradition Parkway.

Another unit soon got behind the vehicle to help with traffic as others began blocking entrance ramps, beginning at Orange Avenue.